Hi Kathy
I am the POCT coordinator for Plymouth Hospitals NHS Trust. Our Emergency Department sits within the 'Emergency Village' where all medical admissions areas are within short distance of the 24/7 laboratory. We have not gone down the route of providing the tests you mention. The laboratory offers Troponin T on the Roche Modular platform with a rapid TAT. INR/DD is offered in the same laboratory (we are a combined laboratory of Biochem/Haem/Coag/Blood bank/Molecular/Immunology/Stem Cells), also with a rapid TAT. We do not generally support the use of INR meters in the trust, only primary care that would not have access to rapid results.
Our ED does not routinely admit patients with chest pain. Patients wait in a clinical decision unit until all investigations are complete unless otherwise indicated. Therefore we do not have the cost pressure of unnecessary admissions. We aim to report all results between 30 and 60 minutes of sample being drawn. This seems to be more than satisfactory for our busy ED department.
We are evaluating creatinine on our Radiometer 800 series blood gas analyser as the ED team wanted a rapid assessment of renal function. Metabolites, electrolytes and co-oximetry is alsoi available on this analyser.
Kind regards
Tony
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